Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of Winter 2021
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
phia_one
Posts: 1660 Location: Pennsylvania |
|
|||||
|
Best:
Back Arrow-IMO this show managed to nail that goofy over the top feel without being overkill. It was the show I looked forward to the most every week. Even if you aren't into mecha, the character of Shu Bi alone makes the show worth watching. Runner Up: Laid Back Camp 2-Still as charming and comfy as the 1st season. Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-I didn't have any expectations for this show and I'm glad I gave it a chance. Tomozaki is likable and the cringe moments of him trying to socialize were so well done. The other characters were also enjoyable. Disappointing: Horimiya-I remember liking the manga, but I actually had to drop the show because I honestly forgot how insufferable Hori is and I'm not even talking about the kink thing. Other: It's a good thing this isn't reddit or else I'd probably be downvoted to oblivion for this, but I had to drop Sk8 the Infinity because it just got too goofy, over the top, and melodramatic for me. I liked the characters to an extent, but ADAM killed my interest in the show. |
||||||
|
||||||
Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
|
|||||
|
It's hard for me to pick a "best" this season, but based on what i've seen so far, i am having a blast watching Sk8 with my watch group. I'm going to try and finish Wonder Egg Priority as well, really liked that first episode.
I can't believe I haven't seen a single mention of this show, not even in the comments, so i'll fight for it here; Umamusume Season 2 was incredible, and even better than the first. Beyond the eccentric premise is a lot of heart, goofy humor, and a well done sports series that made me tear up several times. Even if we never get a season 3, i'll be very interested to see what that creative team does next. For most disappointing, i'd have to say Slime S2. Not that it was BAD, or that the production fell apart, but the main issue for me was the sluggish pacing in the second half. I'd rather it had just been a tight 11 episodes (like Mushoku Tensei) than stretch things out to "long-form shonen filler arc" levels. Unless your name is Log Horizon, your zany isekai should not have an episode dedicated to a board meeting! |
||||||
|
||||||
Spike Terra
 Subscriber Posts: 361 Location: Maryland |
|
|||||
|
This season was really good and it's actually kinda hard to pick my favorite. For me:
Best sequel anime = Rezero 2 Part 2 Best non-sequel = Otherside Picnic Runner Up Sequel = Non Non Biyori Nonstop Runner Up Non sequel = Hortensia Saga Honorable Mentions = Show By Rock !! Stars, The Quintessential Quintuplets 2, Spider saga, Yashahime, Wonder Egg Priority, Beaststars 2, Kemono Jihen Worst Quality = Ex Arm Most frustrating to watch = Vlad Love I have a good reason for watching all of these except for Vlad Love. Like while Ex Arm was lovable trash fire, Vlad Love was just brutal to go through. Like I ended getting annoyed with every character's shtick and 70% of the content were references (sometimes they had jokes attached to them). It just felt like several hours of someone yelling "Remember this" at you, while pointing at their favorite things. But besides that I genuinely thought this season was pretty awesome. |
||||||
|
||||||
SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 240 |
|
|||||
|
This is a record season as it's the first time I followed 20 airing series. As a personal rule, I don't drop shows that passed my 3-episode test, so it was also the most exhausting anime season I've experienced so far. Terms like "Best" and "Worst" mean different things depending on who you are talking to, so my take would look like this:
My required viewing: Shows I'd stay late for so I can watch them as soon as the latest episode lands: Attack on Titan and Dr. STONE. Consistently exhilarating week after week, despite the fact that I have read the source material for the events covered in these seasons. My eye candy: Jujutsu Kaisen. I kept on watching this show not because of the plot or its characters (which are also nice), but because of the animation and the rich horror imagery. Bonus points for Jujutsu stroll. Pleasant surprise(s) are three shows I did not expect to enjoy but ended up in my prime viewing list: SK8, Kemono Jihen and Dr. Ramune. Especially Dr. Ramune. Shout-out to Rebecca as I was encouraged to continue watching this because she was generous in its episode 1 preview guide. Visually speaking it's meh and outwardly seems like a ripoff of Mob Psycho's Reigen and Mob with a dash of Hell Girl and RIN-NE story-wise, but like one commenter mentioned, and what exactly I felt for the show: It has heart. Expectations met: World Trigger, Bungou Stray Dogs WAN and Cells at Work: BLACK. I came in knowing what to expect and left fully satisfied. Now for the negatives. The I-regret-watching-this-just-because-everybody-told-me-to show: Horimiya. It's partly my fault, as I'm really not into highschool romcoms, but I let myself get persuaded to watch this one. Production-wise, it's fairly competent, and in general, seeing other characters introduced out of the blue did not feel confusing or off for me at all. My problem with it is I just don't have a shred of interest in the main couple, or every other character in the show really. Nearly every episode bored me to tears, including that one episode hailed by its fandom as world-shaking in its "progressiveness" and stuff. But nope, just not my cup of tea. And finally, the shows I had high hopes for but ended up breaking my heart : The Promised Neverland S2 and Yashahime. I knew the problems of the TPN manga before I came in to this season and I was hoping, with the strength of S1, that they could somehow "fix" my issues with it (mainly pacing and character balance). Not only did S2 not fix anything, it actually managed to make things worse. As for Yashahime, I'm actually in the camp that doesn't expect any depth from the franchise. Inuyasha was no gem (heh) in that regard, but it was engaging and coherent (albeit repetitive) at the very least. Instead, Yashahime ended up as the show I least looked forward to every week. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
gridsleep
|
|
|||||
|
Pui Pui Molcar: Have you ever watched "A Town Called Panic"?
|
||||||
|
Raven.In.Pink
|
|
|||||
|
Best: Sk8 the Infinity. It’s dumb, over the top, campy, filled with LGBT+ undertones and overtones- and I love ALL OF IT. It’s stuff like this that keeps me loving anime. It wears its love for skating on its sleeve, but it also doesn’t take itself too seriously for it to be cringey, at least to me.
It’s why I can laugh off cliche stuff like “the reason you lost is cause WE skate FOR FUN” and just Adam’s entire character. Plus, this anime brought Joe into the anime world. And lord knows I need more Anime men that look like Joe. Worst: Yashahime. I have a lot to say about The Promised Neverland’s second season. Especially as someone who followed the manga from beginning to end. But at the least I could laugh at some of its weird story beats and that horrendous slideshow ending. Yashahime, on the other hand, BORED me. It’s one thing to be a badly handled anime. It’s another to be a completely boring one. Yashahime was an extremely basic monster-of-the-week with the occasional plot relevant episode. Inuyasha had a similar set up, but its “filler” content was at least interesting, filled with frightening and interesting Yokai. Plus there was at least a reason for these monster-of-the-week episodes to exist in Inuyasha. They had to search for the shards of the jewel! But why exactly should I care to watch the “filler” in Yashahime? Towa wants to find stuff about the dream butterfly for Setsuna, but Setsuna doesn’t give a damn. There’s no urgency to help Setsuna out, and the only reason the audience is given to care is that Setsuna is Towa’s sister. But that’s it. And sadly, the two of them lack any real chemistry as family. They also tried to insert this side plot that Towa felt out of place in the modern world. But I personally never got that? She seemed to be doing decent and living a basic life, happy with Kagome’s brother and his family. And man- the fact that none of the girls care about their family of origin just dampers the mood. They could’ve done something interesting with that, like showing the girls caring more about their adoptive families and eventually wanting to know more about their biological families. And maybe some interesting internal conflict over that. But nope. I remember that one episode where Sesshomaru shows up to save the twins from Kirinmaru. Only for the twins to get knocked and Sesshomaru to go “welp- I’m out” minutes later. Talk about a wasted opportunity to do something interesting. I could probably go on and on about how wasted Yashahime felt. If other people enjoyed it, I’m happy for them. I wanted to like it too. But wow- checking in week after week started feeling like an immense chore. |
||||||
Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2605 |
|
|||||
 ). I found it surprisingly charming despite the low-Q production artwork and was mightily surprised anyone here would say anything about it. Good on y'all for appreciating a show with lots of heart.
By contrast and segue, there was one show that had heartless artwork if ever I saw one and that was (wait for it...)EX-ARM! Though surprisingly not the worst story, but just so trope-y that it could have been written better by a Junior Higher in the US. I checked out the manga and I recommend people check give it a shot for the artwork because it was really good IMO. A shame that the anime supposed to "sell" it was so visually awful and like others, I feel for the artist. Of course, it still had about the same crappy story, but like Playboy, you don't get EX-ARM for the deep riveting plot... The worst story if you ask me was TPN S2, though possibly because of how it was handled. I'll definitely give some LOVE for the much maligned Mushoku Tensei. The start was decidedly gross but Mr. Grey RAT did settle down and the characterization of everyone was well done. Plus gorgeous artwork, motion animation and a great sense of comic timing. The English VA for Mr. Bum really sells the character and works surprisingly well alongside the other Rudy VA. Really looking forward to the continuation. Last edited by Hiroki not Takuya on Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24011 |
|
|||||
|
Every now and then a show comes along that puts me in a tiny minority from the rest of anime fandom. This season that show is clearly The Promised Neverland 2. I had no idea but apparently most people hated it. I actually liked it. Obviously we had to have a new story once the kids escaped the farm and I thought what we were given filled the bill. No, I'm not a heavy opium user, why do you ask?
But I'm glad we're all agreed that EX-ARM and Redo the Healer are the two masterpieces of Winter 2021, heh-heh-heh... |
||||||
|
||||||
|
minamikaze
Posts: 234 |
|
|||||
I have to second this. I enjoyed the first season of Uma Musume, but this second season was significantly better. It took me by surprise too, since I was initially disappointed that Special Week wasn't the main character this time. I also did not think Teio would be interesting as a lead, but I was very wrong about that. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
ChimeyChime
Posts: 63 |
|
|||||
This. 
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11523 |
|
|||||
|
So I watched Pui Pui Molcar tonight, and yes it was cute and fun. Not sure best of the season material, but worth the time. I noticed in Episode 10 that the owner of the Molcar that dreamed of being a BatMolcar and got turned into a magical girl Molcar instead, looked an awful lot like the Otaku in Peeping Life. Ok, his flannel shirt was yellow instead of green, but he had the same backpack, glasses and red headband. So was PPM giving a nod to that character, or is this just the stereotypical image of otaku in Japan?
|
||||||
|
||||||
Suxinn
 Posts: 249 |
|
|||||
|
There was a series entirely about guinea pigs this season and no one told me? Definitely queuing up this thing to watch as soon as possible.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
echen_taichi
Posts: 22 |
|
|||||
|
Best: Higurashi no naku koro ni Gou
|
||||||
|
||||||
Bexarath
 Posts: 29 Location: Kalmar, Sweden |
|
|||||
|
Best: For me the obvious choice is Laid Back Camp 2. This was exactly what I needed in my life right now, just warm cozy comfort. It's relaxing, funny, and just generally enjoyable.
Runner-up: Jujutsu Kaisen. Sure, it's pretty standard fare for the genre, but the characters are so likeable and the animation so amazing that it's really engaging to watch. I was afraid the beginning would be a standard Tournament Arc that would totally turn me off the series, but was happily surprised by one of the greatest bromances in history. Most Pleasant Surprise: Heaven's Design Team. This one came out of nowhere for me. When I read about it I thought it would just be a silly gag anime. I mean, it is, but it also has likeable characters and a lot of interesting animal trivia. The Worst Humanity Has To Offer: EX-ARM. For some reason I watched every episode of this foetid corpse of animation. Perhaps I sought to train my mind. To endure, and in enduring grow strong. Or perhaps it was like a gruesome accident I couldn't look away from. In any case, it's rare to see a work of "art" fail so spectacularly on every conceivable level. Animation, story, characters, you name it. EX-ARM will show you how not to do it. At least Nick's reviews documenting his descent into madness provided some humorous relief. |
||||||
|
||||||
Brack
 Posts: 287 Location: UK |
|
|||||
It's the general stereotype of an otaku uniform. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group